Square Enix has announced a partnership with Web3 platform Elixir. This new alliance may help Square Enix promote possible blockchain games to a more traditional gaming audience.
The NFT craze may be forgotten in most circles these days, but if there’s one gaming company that’s still excited about adopting the technology, it’s Square Enix. In the first months of 2023, former company president Yosuke Matsuda said Square Enix was looking to actively invest in NFTs, even though most gamers seemed to have little interest in the technology. The release of Final Fantasy VII NFT cards last month appears to be just the beginning of more plans to move these products forward.
Now, Square Enix will partner with Elixir, a platform focused on Web3 games that are blockchain-based games using NFTs. The announcement says it’s a strategic partnership for the company that could help drive adoption of those titles among traditional gamers already hooked on Square Enix’s other projects. Elixir has also previously partnered with Epic Games in an effort to get more Web3 games on the store, so something similar could be expected from this partnership.
Not surprising considering Square Enix is doubling down on NFTs with its recently announced Symbiogenesis project. Symbiogenesis will be a new NFT-centric game that will use blockchain technology. However, given how much gamers seem to dislike the technology, Square Enix has a real challenge to get people actually interested in it.
So far, gamers don’t seem interested in NFTs, and Square Enix could end up losing some of its brand loyalty because of these issues. There are not many successful examples of Web3 games.
Square Enix isn’t the only game company betting on NFTs right now. Sony, for example, recently filed a patent for cross-platform NFTs and continues to show interest in these technologies. In this particular patent, the tech giant describes a system that can be used to manage and monetize digital assets across different games and platforms, linking NFTs to in-game achievements. However, unlike Square Enix, which has already launched an NFT project, it is too early to say whether Sony’s project will be available.